Mykonos Cafe And Taverna – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Jose Villegas, my friend and colleague at Hanscom Air Force Base, earned the most ignominious nickname. Everyone called him “Jose Viernes” which fans of the 1960s television series Dragnet might recognize is the Spanish translation for “Joe Friday.” We didn’t call him Jose Viernes because he was a “just the facts” kind of guy. He earned that sobriquet because he lived for Fridays. Jose kept a perpetual calendar in his head, constantly reminding us that there are “only XXX days until Friday.” Quite naturally, his favorite expression was “TGIF” which he could be overheard exclaiming ad-infinitum when his favorite day of the week finally arrived. Conversely, for him (as it is for many Americans), Monday was the most dreaded way to spend one-seventh of his life, an accursed day that mercilessly ended his weekend.

Aside from the temporary reprieve Friday provides from the grind of an arduous workweek, Jose’s anticipation about Fridays had everything to do with fun, friends, food and females. Mostly food. Jose was one of the first gourmets I ever met, a man with an educated palate and nuanced tastes (though for some reason, he disliked the foods of his native Puerto Rico). On Fridays, his favorite Greek restaurant served a combination platter brimming with several of his favorite dishes. Jose raved about such delicacies as dolmas, spanakopita, galaktoboureko and other dishes he could spell and pronounce flawlessly and which he considered ambrosiatic. Jose rebuffed all offers of company when Greek was Friday’s featured fare, likely because he was as interested in a comely weekend waitress as he was the food.

Bread and Dipping Sauce

In the Hanscom area, some twenty miles northwest of Boston, several of the local Italian and pizza restaurants were owned and operated by Greek proprietors. Some of them would occasionally offer such weirdness as “stuffed grape leaves,” a dish of which my callow mind could not fathom. Save for a “Mediterranean Pizza” (kalamata olives, feta cheese, olive oil) I left Massachusetts without ever experiencing Greek food. After my inauguration into the culinary delights (at Gyros Mediterranean in Albuquerque) of one of the world’s oldest civilizations, I cursed Jose Viernes for not having introduced me to such deliciousness. What kind of friend was he to have kept such dishes as gyros, spanakopita, tarama and stuffed grape leaves (those paragons of weirdness) from me!

Jose Viernes still comes to mind whenever we visit a Greek restaurant. If the fates have been kind to him, he’s probably found a job that allows him to work four ten-hour days a week so he can have his precious Fridays off. Maybe he married that Greek waitress none of us ever met and opened his own Greek restaurant. Perhaps someday through the magic of the internet, I hope we can reconnect and reminisce. Better still, I hope we can break pita together and discuss the nuances of Greek cuisine. With any luck, that reunion will take place at Mykonos Cafe on Juan Tabo.

Restaurants such as the Olympia Cafe (1972), Gyros Mediterranean (1978), Yanni’s Mediterranean (1995) are the elder statesmen among Albuquerque’s Greek restaurants with Mykonos Cafe (1997) the newcomer in the group. Situated in the Mountain Run Shopping Center, Mykonos was founded by veteran restaurateur Maria Constantine. In 2014, Mykonos changed hands when Nick Kapnison, Jimmy Daskalos and wife Nadine Martinez-Daskalos purchased the restaurant. Kapnison and Daskalos are among the Duke City’s most accomplished restaurant impresarios, boasting of such local favorites as Nick & Jimmy’s and El Patron. The talented triumvirate gave Mykonos a complete make-over, revamping virtually everything in the restaurant.

Avgolemono

More than ever, the restaurant evokes images of Mykonos, the Greek island for which the restaurant is named. Sea-blue paint, in particular, will transport you to the crystal clear, blue waters of the Mediterranean. The cynosure of the restaurant is a “bubble wall,” an illuminated glass fixture which holds moving water and changes color depending on its setting. Capacious and attractive as the dining area is, for parents of furry, four-legged children, the dog-friendly patio is a welcome milieu. Our delightful dachshund Dude (he abides) enjoys the attention he receives from the amiable wait staff.

The menu is very well organized into several categories: dips and spreads, Mezethakia (appetizers), soupa, salata, entrees, vegetarian, steaks, chops and lamb, seafood, sandwiches, pastas, sides and homemade desserts. Though it’s not the menu’s goal to make it difficult to decide what to order, it may very well have that effect on you…especially if your tastes are diverse. Jose Viernes would enjoy perusing the many options. While you ponder what to order, a single bread roll with a dipping sauce is ferried over to your table. The base for the dipping sauce is olive oil to which chile flakes, cheese and seasonings are added. It’s among the best you’ll find anywhere.

14-Ounce Bone-In Pork Chop

If you need additional time to study the menu, order the Greek Appetizer Plate (spanakopita, feta cheese & kalamata olives, hummus, dolmas and toasted pita). It’ll keep you noshing contentedly as you decide what will follow and it’ll give you a nice introduction to the restaurant’s culinary delights. Each offering on the plate is a high quality exemplar of the Greek Mezethakia (appetizer) tradition. The spanakopita (spinach and feta cheese baked in filo pastry) is a light and flaky wedge of subtle flavor combinations while the feta and kalamata olives come at you full-bore with more straight-forward and assertive flavors. The dolmas are vegetarian though a beef version (stuffed grape leaves with beef and rice served hot with avgolemono sauce) is available as an appetizer option.

Entrees are accompanied by your choice of soup or salad. Jose Viernes would call the Avgolemono a “no-brainer.” Avgolemono is a traditional Greek soup made with chicken broth, rice (or orzo) eggs, and lemon juice. Wholly unlike the sweet and sour soup you might find at a Chinese restaurant, it’s only mildly tart and blends tart and savory tastes in seemingly equal proportions. It has a rich citrus (but far from lip-pursing) flavor and an almost creamy texture from the eggs. The base of Mykonos’ avgolemono soup is a high-quality chicken stock that keeps all other ingredients nicely balanced.

The fourteen-ounce bone-in pork chop is quite simply the best, most tender and delicious pork chop we’ve had in Albuquerque–better even than the broasted pork chop masterpiece at Vick’s Vittles. When our server asked how I wanted the chop prepared, I told her the chef could indulge himself. It arrived at our table at about a medium degree of doneness with plenty of moistness and just a hint of pink. Greek seasonings penetrated deeply into as tender a cut of pork as we’ve ever had, imbuing the chop with luscious flavors. It was a paragon of porcine perfection. The pork chop is served with tender asparagus spears and mashed potatoes (though you can opt for au gratin potatoes instead).

My Kim’s choice, as it often is when we visit Nick & Jimmy’s, was the Kotopoulo (slow roasted chicken with Mediterranean herbs and extra virgin olive oil). As with many entrees at Mykonos, the chicken is sizeable enough for two people to share. It is comprised of a breast, leg, thigh and wing, all slow-roasted and flavored with lemon and flecked with garlic and oregano. The skin is crispy while the entirety of the chicken is moist and delicious. Roasted Greek potatoes are an excellent pairing for the chicken.

Going strong into its second decade, Mykonos Cafe and Taverna is the type of restaurant my friend Jose Viernes would enjoy every day of the week. So will you.

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2 comments

I’ve eaten here several times over the years and usually have a Greek dish and had planned on fish today. I had lunch today with my sister and niece and they had some off menu items that sounded very good. The waiter brought us some nice rolls with a plate of herbs, cheese and olive oil with butter on the side. We started with dinner salads, fresh but little else but lettuce as we each got on slice of tomato and one slice of cucumber and a couple of shreds of re onion. The ladies ordered the filet which came with assorted vegetables and potatoes. It was tender, flavorful and came cooked as ordered, med rare. I had the rib eye sandwich with fries on a toasted baguette. They did not cover the very nice flavor of the moist, tender steak with cheese which was good. A nice ramekin of aus jus and another with a creamy horseradish sauce. I would have liked grilled onions and if ordered again I’d ask for them. The fries are the same as they serve at Nick and Jimmy’s which are beer battered and quite crispy. I was full from lunch so I passed on dessert and they split a large piece of millionaire pie. We had iced tea which had a somewhat floral taste to it. I would not order the tea again and would just have water with lemon. Next time I’m going to have the Greek roasted chicken.

Nice review, that was exactly what we found: Enjoyed everything on the appetizer sampler plate, especially the dolmas and the feta cheese. Tasty lemon soup; my son’s side salad didn’t look to be the best choice. I went for the half chicken, and it was plenty even for a big guy. (Took home the plump breast.) Very nice lemon flavor in the chicken, which was cooked perfectly and moist. The side of au gratin potatoes seemed to suffer from heat lamp syndrome, but they were OK — in fact, everything was good. Super baklava to share.

Waiter was a nice guy, kept the glasses full but repeatedly asked how “everything was tasting” — (lord, how I hate that query).

Best Greek food I’ve had in years and the well-written menu invites further exploration. Looking forward to returning for some lamb and pork.